As many of you know our Dad, Colin MacDiarmid, was involved in a motorcycle accident on Wednesday, April 27th. He is in critical condition at the burn unit at Maricopa County Medical Center in Phoenix and will be there for quite some time. He suffered 3rd degree burns over 60% of his body, a fractured pelvis, collarbone and fractures in both wrists. The burns are by far the biggest concern. He has undergone two surgeries to remove burnt tissue and to prepare for eventual skin grafts. Because he is under heavy sedation, he is on a ventilator and is expected to remain that way for several weeks.
Due to the severity of his injuries and because he is in the ICU, he can receive no flowers, cards, etc. We discussed visitors with the staff at the burn unit, and have decided to keep the number of visitors to a minimum. As his recovery progresses, we will encourage you all to visit… we know he would love to see you.
Dad has many great friends, so it has been difficult keeping everyone informed. As a result, we created a website to allow you to check on his status. His condition isn’t expected to change quickly because of the slow recovery process associated with burns. We will let you know as things change, and especially when he can start receiving a higher number of visitors. The website address is: www.macdiarmid.us.
Many of you have asked what, if anything, you can do to help. The MMA is planning a blood drive and potentially a group ride in his honor. As we learn more, we will let you know. There have also been questions about donating money to support Dad during his recovery. We established a bank account in his name or you may choose to donate via his Paypal account. Information on how to do this is here: www.macdiarmid.us/donate.
We also established a new email account for him that we ask you to use moving forward. His old email account will be closed in the next couple weeks. Please use ccmacdiarmid AT yahoo DOT com to email Dad in the future. We will monitor this account, but please understand if we are unable to respond to every email. If you would like for us to personally deliver a message to him, we are more than happy to read any emails to him that you send – just let us know.
We can not thank you enough for the tremendous support you have shown Dad this past week. It is comforting to know he has all of you supporting him and keeping him close in your thoughts and prayers. He will need this to help him through the next several months.
Colin and Ian